Applied physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Entanglement distribution between distant parties is an essential component to most quantum communication protocols, but losses and decoherence present in real systems degrade it. Here the authors demonstrate an efficient iterative entanglement distillation protocol that does not rely on quantum memories.

    • Daniela Abdelkhalek
    • , Mareike Syllwasschy
    •  & Roman Schnabel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conducting charged ferroelectric domain walls, as potential building blocks for future electronic devices, are unstable and uncommon in ferroelectric materials. Here, Tselev et al. show that neutral insulating domain walls in PbZrO3 and BiFeO3thin films are conductive under microwave excitation, allowing for non-destructive read-out.

    • Alexander Tselev
    • , Pu Yu
    •  & Petro Maksymovych

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effect of temperature on charge transport mechanisms in molecular tunnel junctions is not fully understood. Here, charge transport studies of a redox-active molecule unveil multiple mechanistic regimes which may be explained by thermal broadening of the Fermi distributions of electrons in the leads.

    • Alvar R. Garrigues
    • , Lejia Wang
    •  & Christian A. Nijhuis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is great interest in slow wave propagation for a variety of applications. Here, Zhu et al. present a dispersion-free helical-structured metamaterial that implements acoustic wave deceleration at broad bandwidth and demonstrates specially designed phase modulation to incident sound through helicity tuning.

    • Xuefeng Zhu
    • , Kun Li
    •  & Shengchun Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Realizing components with decoupled geometrical form and optical function are of interest for various applications. Here, Kamali et al. introduce flexible metasurfaces based on a transmitarray platform that can be conformed to a non-planar arbitrarily shaped object to modify its optical properties at will.

    • Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali
    • , Amir Arbabi
    •  & Andrei Faraon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In semiconductors containing heavy elements, the Rashba spin-orbit interaction can couple the momentum and spin of electrons, yielding spintronic functionality. Here, the authors image band- and orbital-dependent spin-textures in the layered polar semiconductor BiTeI, demonstrating behaviour beyond the standard Rashba model.

    • Henriette Maaß
    • , Hendrik Bentmann
    •  & Friedrich Reinert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coherent Raman imaging is a high fidelity technique to obtain chemical-sensitive images, however sub-diffraction molecular organization information is still missing. Here, the authors exploit molecular bond symmetries to access the microscopic organization of molecules in a single image acquisition.

    • Carsten Cleff
    • , Alicja Gasecka
    •  & Julien Duboisset

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organometallic perovskite solar cells exhibit good efficiency but their photostability is still relatively poorly understood and controlled. Here the authors show that photo-degradation arises from the formation of light-activated meta-stable trap states, is reversible, and can be frozen at 0 °C.

    • Wanyi Nie
    • , Jean-Christophe Blancon
    •  & Aditya D. Mohite

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Amorphous silicon monoxide is known to undergo disproportionation to silicon- and silicon dioxide-like regions, however direct observation of the atomic-scale heterogeneity is still missing. Here, the authors use angstrom-beam electron diffraction to reveal precise structural details of this unusual material.

    • Akihiko Hirata
    • , Shinji Kohara
    •  & Mingwei Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Van der Waals forces are individually weak, but on scale can drive many nano- and macroscopic processes. Here, Kawai et al. directly measure the van der Waals interactions between noble gas atom pairs and show how this changes with atom size and surface adsorption.

    • Shigeki Kawai
    • , Adam S. Foster
    •  & Ernst Meyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interaction of electric and thermal transport phenomena at the nanoscale leads to Seebeck and Peltier thermoelectric effects. Here, the authors directly detect the Peltier effect in graphene, and show that it can be reversed by controlling the type and density of the majority carriers using a back gate.

    • I. J. Vera-Marun
    • , J. J. van den Berg
    •  & B. J. van Wees

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient qubit readout is essential for quantum information technology, which requires sufficient recognition of signal from noise. Here, Krantz et al. propose a simplified technique using a Josephson parametric oscillator, demonstrating single-shot readout performance of a superconducting qubit.

    • Philip Krantz
    • , Andreas Bengtsson
    •  & Jonas Bylander

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrochromism, the dependence of light absorption upon electronic control, finds a wide range of applications in smart materials. Here, Liu et al. show an electrochromic DNA–surfactant liquid crystal system that exhibits electrically tunable optical absorption and thermally tunable memory.

    • Kai Liu
    • , Justin Varghese
    •  & Andreas Herrmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferroelectric organic materials can be used for tunnel barriers in memory devices as a cheaper and eco-friendly replacement of their inorganic counterparts. Here, Tian et al. use poly(vinylidene fluoride) with 1–2 layer thickness to achieve giant tunnel electroresistance of 1,000% at room temperature.

    • B. B. Tian
    • , J. L. Wang
    •  & J. H. Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The high thermal conductivity of graphene is considerably reduced when the two-dimensional material is in contact with a substrate. Here, the authors show that thermal management of a micro heater is improved using graphene-based films covalently bonded by amino-silane molecules to graphene oxide.

    • Haoxue Han
    • , Yong Zhang
    •  & Sebastian Volz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reversible gates, like Fredkin gates, may be useful for energy conservation efforts. Cohen et al. present a formalism that may be used to produce any reversible logic. This method is implemented over an optical design of the Fredkin gate which utilizes only optical elements that inherently conserve energy.

    • Eyal Cohen
    • , Shlomi Dolev
    •  & Michael Rosenblit

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sub-nanometer graphene nanopores are usually required to create graphene-based reverse osmosis membranes. Here, Rollings et al.show that membranes with larger pores are highly ion selective and a hundred times more permeable to potassium ions than to chloride ions, making them useful for electrodialysis.

    • Ryan C. Rollings
    • , Aaron T. Kuan
    •  & Jene A. Golovchenko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The orthorhombic-to-tetragonal phase transition in perovskite can alter its optical and electronic properties. Here, Li et al. report an investigation of the size dependent orthorhombic-to-tetragonal phase transition and show that the phase transition temperature decreases with reducing microplate thickness.

    • Dehui Li
    • , Gongming Wang
    •  & Xiangfeng Duan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bloch oscillations are a fundamental electron transport phenomenon in condensed matter. Here, the authors experimentally realize spatial Bloch oscillations in a non-Hermitian integrated photonic system using CMOS compatible fabrication processes, contributing to improving the understanding of non-Hermitian transport phenomena.

    • Ye-Long Xu
    • , William S. Fegadolli
    •  & Yan-Feng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transferring quantum information is a fundamental task, but doing so with high fidelity is a challenging task. Here, the authors implement the perfect state transfer protocol to a photonic qubit, entangled with a second one in a different location, across eleven coupled waveguides.

    • Robert J. Chapman
    • , Matteo Santandrea
    •  & Alberto Peruzzo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficiency of coherent transport can be enhanced through interaction between the system and a noisy environment. Here, Biggerstaff et al. report an experimental simulation of environment assisted coherent transport using laser-written waveguides, showing that controllable decoherence yields an increase in transport efficiency.

    • Devon N. Biggerstaff
    • , René Heilmann
    •  & Ivan Kassal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Components such as isolators, circulators and gyrators are non-reciprocal in that they allow electromagnetic waves to flow in one direction but not the other. Here, the authors demonstrate a radio-frequency circulator that is compatible with and integrated in a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor integrated circuit.

    • Negar Reiskarimian
    •  & Harish Krishnaswamy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Scalable networks for processing and distribution of quantum information using photons can be achieved by using multiplexed quantum states. Here, the authors report frequency-multimode storage and spectral-temporal photon manipulation of heralded single photons at telecom wavelength, in a fully integrated setting.

    • Erhan Saglamyurek
    • , Marcelli Grimau Puigibert
    •  & Wolfgang Tittel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism of contact formation during the firing of screen-printed contacts to Si solar cells remains elusive. Here, Fields et al. use in situ X-ray diffraction during firing to reveal the reaction sequence, thus suggesting approaches for development of inexpensive, nontoxic solar cell contacting pastes.

    • Jeremy D. Fields
    • , Md. Imteyaz Ahmad
    •  & Maikel F. A. M. van Hest

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parity-time phase transition and exceptional points contribute to the design of many components, but are hard to access due to the dispersive nature of the required materials. Here, the authors introduce a method to systematically control acoustic parity-time phase transition through an active element.

    • Chengzhi Shi
    • , Marc Dubois
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microelectromechanical resonators behave as logic gates thanks to the tunability of their resonance frequencies. Here, the authors combine the mechanical response to electrothermal frequency modulation to demonstrate 2- and 3-bit reprogrammable logic gates at room temperature and under modest vacuum.

    • M. A. A. Hafiz
    • , L. Kosuru
    •  & M. I. Younis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Direct observation of ionic motion in buried metal/oxide interfaces and its correlation with physical properties is a challenging task. Here, the authors observe oxygen migration in a model system with controllable positive exchange bias, due to the redox-driven formation of a ferromagnetic interfacial layer.

    • Dustin A. Gilbert
    • , Justin Olamit
    •  & Kai Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Superconducting circuits offer great promise for quantum computing, but implementations require careful shielding from control electronics. Here, the authors take inspirations from semiconductor spin-based qubits to design Josephson junctions quantum circuits whose qubits do not require microwave control.

    • Yun-Pil Shim
    •  & Charles Tahan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Higher-order multi-photon pumped polarized lasers promise application in future optoelectronic and biomedical applications. Here, the authors demonstrate a polarized three-photon pumped (3PP) microcavity laser in a single host-guest composite MOF crystal via a controllable in situ self-assembly strategy.

    • Huajun He
    • , En Ma
    •  & Guodong Qian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-charging systems based on the connection of a nanogenerator and an energy storage unit through a rectifier can have low energy storage efficiencies. Here, the authors design the charging cycle to maximize the energy storage efficiency of a triboelectric nanogenerator by introducing a motion-induced switch.

    • Yunlong Zi
    • , Jie Wang
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Typically, most structures and devices that can be reconfigured are designed with application specific requirements. Inspired by modular origami ideas, Overveldeet al. present a mechanical metamaterial enabling the design of three-dimensional structures of arbitrary architecture with tunable shape, volume and stiffness.

    • Johannes T.B. Overvelde
    • , Twan A. de Jong
    •  & Katia Bertoldi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Signal-to-noise ratio is one of the key factors that currently limit the diagnostic image quality and patient conditions of magnetic resonance imaging. Here, Corea et al. use fully printed flexible receive coils, conforming to patient bodies, to improve signals and patient comfort in clinical scanners.

    • Joseph R. Corea
    • , Anita M. Flynn
    •  & Ana C. Arias

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active matter, such as swimming bacteria, show unique behaviors under confinement, but it is experimentally challenging to measure them. Takatoriet al. show the use of acoustic tweezers to trap self-propelled Janus particles as an enabling tool to investigate collective motions in living systems.

    • Sho C. Takatori
    • , Raf De Dier
    •  & John F. Brady

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charge mobility, extracted from current–voltage curves, is an important parameter for evaluating the performance of organic field-effect transistors. Bittle et al. show that charge mobility can be overestimated by one order of magnitude due to the gate bias dependence of the charge injection process.

    • Emily G. Bittle
    • , James I. Basham
    •  & David J. Gundlach

  • Article
    | Open Access

    On-chip light sources for silicon photonic circuits remain a challenge since the indirect bandgap of silicon prevents efficient light emission. The authors demonstrate that lasing can be achieved by combining standard silicon-on-insulator waveguides with dye-doped organic cladding materials to provide optical gain.

    • Dietmar Korn
    • , Matthias Lauermann
    •  & Christian Koos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanomaterials provide a route to efficient solid-state conversion between thermal and electrical energy. Here, the authors demonstrate that a combination of metal and semiconductor colloidal nanocrystals can produce thermoelectric nanocomposites with high performance.

    • Maria Ibáñez
    • , Zhishan Luo
    •  & Andreu Cabot

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Modern technology such as electronics and photovoltaics requires careful control of optical responses of electronic properties. Here, Sando et al. demonstrate a large variation of optical index and light absorption in multiferroic material BiFeO3thin films, tunable by in-film strain or electric field.

    • D. Sando
    • , Yurong Yang
    •  & M. Bibes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Scanning transmission electron microscopy is a powerful material probe, but constrained to large atomic number samples due to the issues of beam damage and weak scattering. Here, Ophus et al.propose a method that produces linear phase contrast in a focused electron beam to image dose-sensitive objects.

    • Colin Ophus
    • , Jim Ciston
    •  & Peter Ercius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystalline materials are formed by the periodic order of atomic unit cells. Here, Pierangeli et al. report the formation of a ferrelectric super-crystal with micrometric unit cell from modulated nanoscale disorder in potassium-lithium-tantalate-niobate, which is potentially useful for engineering ordered states out of disorder.

    • D. Pierangeli
    • , M. Ferraro
    •  & E. DelRe

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